LECTURE II. 33 



tive in many respects, does not at all deserve the neglect with 

 wMcli it has been treated in some recent works. As regards the 

 estimation of this angle, as well as of some others which can 

 only be taken on the dry skull, it will be necessary to make 

 some further observations. 



Fig. 1. Cranium of an Australian in profile, after Lucae. 



The osseous framework of the head is composed of two 

 intimately connected parts : the cranium proper, containing 

 the brain, and forming a firmly closed box with a few aper- 

 tures only, through which the spinal cord, nerves, and blood- 

 vessels obtain access to the brain ; and ilie face, containing 

 spaces for the more important organs of sense and the en- 

 trances to the respiratory and digestive organs. On compar- 

 ing the formation of the head in man and brute, we see, at the 

 first glance, that in the former the skull-cap, and consequently 

 the enclosed brain, predominates considerably over the face, 

 which appears like an appendage to the skull. For we must bear 

 in mind, that in normal skulls a plane drawn from the upper 

 margin of the eyebrows through the aural apertures, passes to 

 the posterior edge of the occipital foramen ; that is to say, 

 almost entirely within the internal cranial space, and that when 

 the head is thus divided into two parts, the vipper portion con- 



D 



